cin it dues uta Aceh Sage Te He afeab Comtnutelen Coe new year is at hand. We ask ourselves what it may hold for us. Peace or enduring war? We know that the hopes of Britons at home, in China and all the world over are bent towards peace, for the habit of peace fs strong in us. 1 do not mean that high-strung, brittle peace that this new war has shattered, for in that there dwelt something that was akin to war itself, I mean the kind of peace that gives free play to the true expression of our ideals and of all that is precious to us, that will bring to Europe and to all the peoples of the world the richest blessing that can come to man—the right to live his own life in his ower decent way, That is, reduced to simple terms, in freedom, quiet and sanity, balancing his own human values as seems best to him, his hand against no man and secure and happy in the belief that no man's hand is against him. A peace that is sought with sincerity, reached with understanding and kept without rancour or vestige of that thinking back upon the past which pricks the spirit of revenge There is no reason why such a peace should not be within the reach of man. But it has been denied him and are now at war. The flame was not of our kindling, for we hold war in detestation, But while we hate it, we dlo not flinch from the burning, ar from it, we must see to it that the fire burns to the end, that from its ashes may spring the boon of the peace which I have tried to describe. In this we and our noble and gallant allies are alike resolved.
Side by side we fight, convinced of our right and steadfast in our determination to secure for the world the kind of peace we want. May the coming year bring it to us. tug ted, dose e 3h 9844
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.